472 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



is a state religion, and one form of service is sure to 

 suit all. Still, many would be comforted and consoled, and 

 would come without asking whether the clergyman were 

 of this or that denomination, if they felt him to be genuine 

 and truly devout. 



I have presented the old hospital and the present one in 

 direct contrast, because the comparison gives a measure of 

 the progress which, in some directions at least, has taken 

 place during the last thirty or forty years in Rio de Janeiro. 

 It is true, that all their institutions have not advanced in 

 proportion to their benevolent establishments ; charity, like 

 hospitality, may be said to be a national virtue among 

 the Brazilians. They hold almsgiving a religious duty, 

 and are more liberal to their churches and to the public 

 charities connected with them than to their institutions 

 of learning. Unhappily, a great deal of their liberality 

 of this kind is expended upon church festas, street pro- 

 cessions, saint days, and the like, more calculated to feed 

 superstition than to stimulate pure religious sentiment. 



We should not leave the Misericordia without some allu- 

 sion to the man to whom it chiefly owes its present character. 

 Jos^ Clemente Pereira would have been gratefully remem- 

 bered by the Brazilians as a statesman of distinguished 

 merit, who was intimately associated with more than one of 

 the most important events in their history, even had he no 

 other claim on their esteem. He was born in Portugal, 

 and distinguished himself as a young man in the Penin- 

 sular war. Though he was already twenty-eight years of 

 age when he left Europe, he seems to have been as true 

 a lover of Brazil as if born on her soil. His merit was 

 soon recognized in his adopted country, and he occupied, 

 at different times, some of the highest offices of the 



